Did you know that Gen Zs and Millennials made up 75 percent of the restaurant workforce in 2020? That number will only grow larger as time goes on, and businesses must adapt their recruiting practices to attract high-quality employees. It’s no secret that technology has been a defining factor of these generations, which means owners and operators should embrace innovative ideas and use new outlets to grab their attention.
It’s time to add a social media recruiting strategy to your hiring process. It’s alright if you’re not tech-savvy — we’ll explain everything you need to know to recruit Gen Z workers on social media platforms.
You can also add the power of Sprockets, an AI-powered platform that augments sourcing with free job postings and predicts which applicants will succeed like your best employees.
4 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR DESIGNING YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA RECRUITMENT STRATEGY
1. Know Your Needs
Before you start messaging all your social media followers with private messages about how great your job opportunities are, take a moment and assess the situation. What job openings do you have? Where are you in the hiring process? Are you looking for someone to create their own position? What skill sets would you like a potential employee to possess? What is your company culture like, and what personality traits would enable a candidate to mesh well with the current team? Defining your purpose in hiring will give you an ample idea of who you are seeking and what that person must bring to the table.
If you are bent on sending out private messages for social recruiting, look through your top commenters. What kinds of engagement do they offer? Are they helpful to other customers? Do they care about your brand as you do? What types of hobbies do they have, according to the content they post?
Learn about the content your consumers engage with. If someone seems like a good fit from there, reach out.
2. Get Creative
If you plan to use social media for the recruitment of Gen Zs and Millennials, then you need to create content that will resonate and inspire them to take action. Creating and sharing blog posts that answer niche questions (like this one) can be particularly effective for engaging people in your target demographic.
You can also create posts on various social media platforms, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, asking fun questions that would capture the interest of your audience. There doesn’t need to be an actual correct answer to your question; simply seeing how people’s minds work is a great way to identify high-quality candidates.
Don’t forget about Instagram, especially when it comes to Gen Zs and Millennials. Consider holding a photo contest. Encourage your followers to come up with a unique photo and creative tagline related to your business. Or, if you’re looking for a new designer to join your team, give them some basic guidelines and see what they come up with for a design contest. (Make sure you ask all participants to tag your business account and use a particular hashtag!) You can give as many or as few details as you want. While you won’t be able to legally use the results in your marketing — unless you onboard the winner — you will get a great look at your talent pool.
3. Be Consistent
To effectively execute a social media recruitment strategy, it’s essential to maintain a consistent presence online with your company’s accounts. This tells people that you’re easy to reach, you’ll respond in a timely manner, and you value a strong work ethic.
Consider scheduling several posts at once that will be published on a regular, weekly timeline to make things easier for yourself. Pay particular attention to your audience insights on each social media platform so that your posts go live at ideal times to reach your target demographic. You can even come up with a simple social media calendar to plan posts more effectively.
Using a wide range of media is also fantastic for reaching different people. Some individuals are visual learners who love infographics. Others are audio learners, so podcasts are great. Utilize a variety of media to engage your followers on multiple platforms, allowing them the luxury to choose when, how, and what they want to learn.
4. Choose the Right Channels
Every social media platform reaches different demographics and has different innate purposes. LinkedIn is an excellent platform for recruiting and job seekers. Here, you’ll find candidates actively looking for work and passive candidates willing to take a better offer. Instagram is typically where Millennials and Gen Z-ers go to check out more visual, fun messages. Twitter is mainly about news headlines and trending hashtags. This is a fantastic place for your polls and quippy questions. Lastly, Facebook has become the world’s largest address book. You can find almost everyone on Facebook (but don’t expect Gen Z to spend much time scrolling through their feeds — they’re more inclined to be on Instagram). Simply put, knowing what each social media site is designed for helps you maximize marketing efforts for your job opportunity.
Ultimately, recruiting online takes research, just like any other form of marketing. However, social media — at its core — is meant to be fun and relaxing. Enjoy the questions you ask and the comments you interact with. At the end of the day, you want to mesh well with your next hire.
Source and Screen the Ideal Applicants With Sprockets
In addition to social media recruiting, you can upgrade your hiring process with the power of Sprockets! Our user-friendly platform augments sourcing efforts with free job postings and virtual recruiters while ensuring you hire the ideal applicants every time. It creates a success profile based on your top performers and matches candidates against this benchmark, helping you make better hiring decisions and improve employee retention. Users see a 43% increase in 90-day retention, on average!
Schedule a free demo to start finding the best applicants for your business!